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Topic: Help with Slavonic/Ukrainian/Russian (Read 1088 times)

I may have mentioned this in the past, but I'm a third shift grocery store manager. The company we hire to clean is owned by a Polish man. He hires Ukrainians (as he and his customers refer to as "Russians") and Mexicans. The Ukrainian supervisor, who speaks the most fluent English of the group, and I get along great. We love talking about politics, social issues, and the Church. The beauty of being Orthodox is that no matter where you go, we all share the same theological language. Unfortunately, that language can be hindered by cultural linguistics.

Today/Last night (depending on how you look at it) I asked him what his name, "Ruslan" translated into English (assuming it was the saint he was named after), it didn't - although some call him "Russel". I asked him who his patron saint was; he looked at me funny. "What name do you say to the priest when you commune?" Same look.

After a while I understood what he meant, his patron saint is St. Nikolai B-something. I told him I never heard of this Russian saint, and I asked him what the name was in English. He said, "You don't know what B-something is? It means God-Bearer (or Mother of God, I can't remember)." So, would someone mind helping me out with this?

Ruslan comes from a story of St. Volodymyr. He married his daughter Ludmila to Ruslan.

You pick which one he was referring to.

Logged

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

The company we hire to clean is owned by a Polish man. He hires Ukrainians (as he and his customers refer to as "Russians")

As usual.

Quote

After a while I understood what he meant, his patron saint is St. Nikolai B-something. I told him I never heard of this Russian saint, and I asked him what the name was in English. He said, "You don't know what B-something is? It means God-Bearer (or Mother of God, I can't remember)." So, would someone mind helping me out with this?

The company we hire to clean is owned by a Polish man. He hires Ukrainians (as he and his customers refer to as "Russians")

As usual.

Don't be too hard on them. To many around here, "русский" means something like tutejszy and "москаль" means Russian.

Ethnic and linguistic identity is complex in these parts. Last week I spent some time visiting my wife's relatives from northern Rivens'ka Oblast'. Their home language defies classification. Mostly Ukrainian, but some Belarusian and Polish influences with a heavy Russian overlay. Apparently they counted themselves as Poles during the Second Republic but magically became Ukrainians when the USSR marched in. Oddly enough all of them, without a doubt, would claim that they spoke Russian.

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Conquer evil men by your gentle kindness, and make zealous men wonder at your goodness. Put the lover of legality to shame by your compassion. With the afflicted be afflicted in mind. Love all men, but keep distant from all men.—St. Isaac of Syria

Their home language defies classification. Mostly Ukrainian, but some Belarusian and Polish influences with a heavy Russian overlay.

That is a kind of Korzhik (Коржик) i.e. a mixing of Russian and Ukrainian/Belorusian/or Polish (more rarely) etc. The Korzhik is the most wide spread language in Ukraine after the Russian language.

Суржик is what we call it here.

Its more common in rural parts of the East and and among the lower classes in the cities of the East. If you sit on a park bench in Zhytomyr or Vinnytsia you'll hear mostly standard Ukrainian and rarely standard Russian. Here in Dnepropetrovsk you'll pretty much only hear standard Russian with a slight local accent. Hang out around the market or the train station when an elektrichka is just coming in and you'll have a fascinating degustation of surzhyk. Nonetheless I'd be hesitant to say it is the second most common language in Ukraine. As for Russian being the most spoken, it really depends on where you are in the country.